The League of Legends World Championships have been going full force with some stunning plays all over. One of the support champions we have seen a lot of is Zyra, the Thorn’s Embrace. Seeing as she is one of my regular supports, and the one I have had the most consistent success with, it seems like an ideal time to give other summoners who might be considering picking her up a few tips to get started.
Know Your Role
This is more important for Zyra than most other champions. On release, Zyra was originally assigned to the mid-lane as an AP Carry. It is still a role she can perform well, even if she is much more common as a support now. This can lead to some extremely confusing and potentially game-ruining moments in champ select if you lock in and someone assumes you are going someplace you aren’t.
Be very clear in champ select when you are locking Zyra as to where you are taking her.
Learn the Timing
All of Zyra’s offensive abilities have some sort of delay before taking effect. Her q takes a second before hitting, her e has one of the slower skillshot travel times, and her ult waits a second before applying its knock-up.
Those poor minions…
Much of the skill involved in using Zyra as opposed to another champion comes from learning to make use of the timing on her various abilities. Zyra becomes drastically more dangerous once you are able to lead targets just enough with her snare, place her q where it cannot be avoided, and drop her ult so the enemy AD Carry you just snared comes out of the snare right as the knockup hits.
Practice the timing on all of these abilities. Practice in bot games, practice in normals, practice in ARAMs if you get her, but practice. To be a good Zyra player you need to have the timing on all three of these abilities down perfectly.
Place Seeds Wisely
Zyra’s seed pods are one of her trademark features. The turrets they can create amplify her threat potential immeasurably, giving her long range persistent crowd control and harass, as well as allowing her a measure of zone control few other champions can match. They serve other purposes all on their own, however, making their placement a bit more involved than deciding where you want a turret.
That there is an aggressive seed pod.
There are three ways to place her seeds. The first is to place them aggressively, to help control your opponent’s movements based on their threat. This can actually work very well during laning phase, particularly when playing Zyra as a support. Having seeds near where the enemy AD Carry is moving to last-hit forces them to consider that you might punish them severely for approaching. If you maneuver right, placing a seed behind an enemy might actually make them panic, certain you are about to initiate. If you can draw out a flash or cause them to make some other impulsive mistake, your seed did its job.
The second way to place them is the opposite, placing them defensively. Having a seed sitting in the bottom lane bush can work nearly as well as a ward with keeping vision on the enemy support, since they do not want to be caught by a snare with a plant stabbing them. Placing a seed in the river bush can also warn of an incoming gank from the enemy mid or jungler, either giving an extra second or two to react or even scaring them off entirely once they are seen. These defensive seeds are the real strength support Zyra has over champions like Taric. They let her exert both offensive and defensive zone control with minimal effort.
The third and most obvious use of her seeds is to summon quick help during a fight. This is why it is usually a good idea to keep at least one seed ready to drop. Both of Zyra’s abilities create turrets from her seeds–but both are slow enough to place a seed in their AoE after starting the ability. Getting used to dropping a seed in the path of her E or AoE of her Q when a fight starts is another vital skill for a Zyra player. Placing the seed first gives the enemy a chance to stamp it out before it sprouts. In later teamfights, it is easily possible to drop two seeds in the AoE of her Q, granting a substantial increase in her damage potential over the course of the fight.
Hopefully these tips will give you a good start on your way to mastering one of League of Legends‘s most versatile champions. Good luck to you, and as always, I will see you on the Fields of Justice!
